Conscience is erroneous when we think that something right is wrong, or that something wrong is right. An erroneous conscience arises from ignorance or a faulty knowledge of the law. As long as a person who has an erroneous conscience knows no better, he is not responsible for the evil he may do by following it. An erroneous conscience is a false one.

    For example, a child tells a lie in order to save his younger brother from punishment. He thinks his duty to protect his little brother is superior to the telling of the truth. He has an erroneous conscience, and in this case commits no sin. However, everyone is required to strive for a correct knowledge of the law by studying his religion. In that way he will form a correct or right conscience.

    If a person with an erroneous conscience believes something right is wrong, and nevertheless does it, he is guilty of sin, because he has violated his conscience, and therefore willed to do wrong.

    A man may believe that God prohibits gambling in a lottery. If he nevertheless participates, he sins, because he has violated his conscience.

    One has a doubtful conscience when one does not know whether something is right or wrong. We should not act if we have a doubtful conscience about something, but wait till we can clear the matter up.

    If one has a doubtful conscience, but yet must do something and cannot wait, he should say to himself that if he knew it was wrong, then he would not do it. Then even if he makes up his mind and does it, and it is really wrong, he is not guilty of sin.

    A scrupulous conscience is a sick conscience that sees sin where there is none. A scrupulous person looks on temptation as sins. We must not encourage a scrupulous conscience. It is a mark of lack of confidence in the goodness of God.

    When a scrupulous person is tempted, he worries himself sick, believing he has committed sin, even when he has not yielded to the temptation one whit, even when he as actually abhorred it.

    An unscrupulous or lax conscience is the opposite of a scrupulous conscience. One with such a lax conscience convinces himself that man is too weak to resist sin, and so all sin is negligible. After some time a lax conscience increases in laxness until the person loses practically all sense of wrong. Thus he becomes a habitual sinner. We then say that he has no conscience.

    A delicate or tender conscience is one which impels us to avoid anything in the slightest degree evil. We should be most careful to keep our conscience delicate. It is a terrible thing for one to live as if he had no conscience. It is a tender conscience that escapes such things as self-reproach, shame, remorse, dismay, and fear, because it is ever before God, Who gives it peace and hope.

    A tender conscience is the conscience of the saints. It is the conscience that good Christians should cultivate. Then they will not do anything the least displeasing to God.

Tomorrow: The Great Commandments part one

July 6, 2000
volume 11, no. 117
APPRECIATION OF THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH series

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